1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an LED illumination apparatus that uses an LED (light emitting diode) attached to a socket of a fluorescent light fixture. The contents of the following patent application is incorporated herein by reference, NO. 2009-259493 filed on Nov. 13, 2009, and NO. 2010-028309 filed on Feb. 11, 2010.
2. Related Art
LED illumination apparatuses that use a white LED with high luminance, energy saving capability, and long life have already been developed to replace conventional illumination apparatuses such as fluorescent lamps.    Patent Document No. 1: Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2001-351402    Patent Document No. 2: Japanese Patent No. 4156657    Patent Document No. 3: Japanese Utility Model Registration No. 3148176
Patent Document No. 1 proposes an LED illumination apparatus that can be attached to an already-installed fluorescent light fixture with ease.
Patent Document No. 2 proposes an LED illumination apparatus that is assembled efficiently.
FIG. 8 shows an internal structure of a conventional LED illumination apparatus. The LED illumination apparatus includes a main body 1, a cap 3, a print substrate 4, a plurality of LEDs 5, and an electric wire 7, where the cap 3 holds a pair of pin terminals 2 attachable to an already-installed fluorescent light fixture and is joined to the main body 1, the print substrate 4 is accommodated in the main body 1 and has an electric control circuitry mounted thereon, the plurality of LEDs 5 are mounted to the print substrate 4, the electric wire 7 has one end connected to the print substrate 4 and the other end connected to the pair of pin terminals 2, and the pair of pin terminals 2 and the electric terminal 7 are connected to each other by swaging or soldering. The connection by waging or soldering is not only difficult to work with, but also the electric wire, once connected, is structurally difficult to be removed, and the parts exchange is difficult to pursue.
Patent Document No. 3 proposes an LED illumination apparatus having an LED illumination section and/or the LED itself exchangeable.
Wiring in some fluorescent light fixtures is such that only one pole of the pair of electrodes of the socket 8 is connected to the power source, as shown in FIG. 9. Therefore, both of the pin terminals 2 should be connected to the print substrate 4. One method to realize this is to connect both of the pin terminals 2 to the print substrate 4 via two electric wires, as shown in FIG. 8. Another method is to connect a round terminal 9a to one end of the electric wire 7 drawn from the print substrate 4, to be connected to a pin terminal 2 using screw, as shown in FIGS. 10A and 10B. Note that the round terminal 9a and a round terminal 9b that is different from the round terminal 9a are short circuited therebetween using a jumper line 10, and the round terminal 9b is connected to another pin terminal 2 using screw.
There are also a type of fluorescent light fixture that conducts AC-DC conversion therein and supplies a direct current (DC) to an LED illumination apparatus.